The Account Book of Pastor Storch
By Ute-Ingrid Seidler
NCGS Journal 2, no. 1 (Jan 1976): 27
“Pastor Storch kept careful records of all income received for his services. Since these services included weddings, confirmations, funerals, and the loan of books and money, his account book, which is now at the Lutheran Synod House in Salisbury, provides a valuable source of historical and genealogical information. Access to this record has, in the past, been limited by the 18th Century German script in which it was written.
The contents of the account book, several of the more useful parts of which will be published in this journal are generally as follows: From 1785, income and expenses in Germany; journey from Germany to North Carolina; autobiography; expenses for purchase and, improvement of house; monies received from congregations in Salisbury, Organ Church, and the Irish Settlement; confirmations; marriages, funerals, and baptisms; books loaned; purchases and amounts owed for loans and services; and a list of persons who ordered books from Germany.”
The following translation is one of two portions written in narrative form:
“Departed Fresenhede for North Carolina in North America on April 16, 1788. The reason for this long and dangerous journey was the following:
A preacher sent from Germany to North Carolina in 1773, the still living Adolph Nussmann, requested some assistant preachers from the Abbot Velthusen chose me for, and persuaded me to take, the journey. By permission and order of the Duke, I was examined by 5 Helmstedt professors and ordained by Abbot Velthusen as a preacher for North Carolina….I then went to sea with trust in God on May 4th, 1788, and arrived happily in America, namely first in the city Baltimore on June 27th of the same year. Thus the whole voyage lasted seven weeks, five days. In Baltimore, I found a good kindly reception, and after a pleasant six weeks stay there I traveled by water to Charleston in 6 days.
In Charleston I tarried only 14 days, and rode on a horse which I bought there for 11 pounds sterling, to Pastor Nussmann, a distance, the way I went, of 300 English miles. In the beginning of the month of September, (17)88), I came to Mr. Nussmann, who has a congregation at Buffalo Creek. After I had rested there, we made arrangements with the congregations who wanted me as their preacher. Three congregations elected and called me: Namely, the one in Salisbury where I first made my residence; the second on the upper Second Creek, called Organ Church, 10 miles from the town of Salisbury. The third, of the Peint Church, which, however, I had to give up again, and thus for now only 2 congregations, the one in Salisbury and the Organ Church, which have promised me in writing 80 pounds North Carolina paper money yearly…”
Pastor Storch recorded confirmations in his account book on a separate page for each church served. The confirmations for the following churches are included in this article:
- Buffalo Creek Church
- Church in the Irish Settlement
- Organ Church
- Peint Church
- Church in Salisbury
If you have a German immigrant ancestor who settled in Rowan County, you may want to consider searching through the translated account book.
For additional information about German immigrants in North Carolina and Pastor Storch, see the following links:
Organ Lutheran Church Rowan County, North Carolina, Founded 1745: A Brief History
History of the German settlements and of the Lutheran church in North and South Carolina : from the earliest period of the colonization of the Dutch, German, and Swiss settlers to the close of the first half of the present century
Storch, Carl August Gottlieb by Robert C. Carpenter, 1994
Notes taken from Johann Arends book; also Extracts from the diary of David Henkel; also The account book of Paster Storch transcribed by Adelaide and Eugenia Lore